The Night Ala Alba Saved Christmas
by Japanese Teeth
Summary: I got this idea in my head and it wouldn't go away until I wrote it.  Through an unlikely series of events, Ala Alba must rescue the holiday, in both a literal and figurative manner.  Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

**The Night Ala Alba Saved Christmas**

"Chachamaru?" Evangeline stuck her head out of her room and glanced down the stairs. "Where are you?" The girl grunted and pushed her feet into her slippers before making her way down into her living room. The robot was nowhere to be seen, but Eva knew she was nearby. The muffled noise of Chachamaru's jetpack emanated through the wall. The small girl tightened her robe and pried open the door.

Frigid wind bit at her cheeks as she peeked her head through the opening. Chachamaru hovered next to the roof's edge, systematically picking at a large knot of Christmas lights. Her hands fluttered around the snarl, slowly unraveling the string and hooking the loose length to the overhang.

"Chachamaru, what are you doing up there!-?" Eva could feel her nose starting to stuff up.

"Oh, mistress!" Chachamaru's head turned to face the vampire girl. The rest of her body continued affixing the lights to the cottage. "Good morning. Breakfast is in the kitchen. I left it sitting on the stove."

"Forget breakfast!" Eva stuck her arm out the door for the purpose of shaking her fist, but the chilled air made her immediately reconsider. "What are you doing out here?"

"Hanging Christmas lights." Chachamaru turned back to her work, gradually ascending with the slope of the roof as she hung the lights.

"I can see that." Eva had to look straight up to see Chachamaru, who had reached the apex of the roof. "I want to know why."

"We didn't decorate at all last year, and I thought that the house might look nice if we hung some lights." She halted her descent to deal with a particularly nasty snag.

"You didn't spend any of my money on that stuff did you?"

"Of course not, mistress. My own funds are entirely sufficient."

"Okay, good. Now stop messing around with those things and get in here! We have a lot to do today." She slammed the barely-open door as loudly as she could manage. Her hands were still shaking as stepped into the kitchen. Breakfast was indeed sitting on the stove. Eva wasn't really hungry, but she snatched a roll off of one of the platters.

"So what's she up to out there?"

Eva turned to see Chachazero propped up on the counter, leaning against the fridge.

"Hanging Christmas lights. I don't know why she's taking so much trouble. It's pointless."

"Wow, you're a real Grinch. Or like Evanezer Scrooge or something. Get some Christmas spirit. Or at least some eggnog."

"'Evanezer Scrooge?'" Eva ripped a hunk out of the roll with her teeth. "Since when do you give a crap about this stuff?"

"You kidding? I'm all about the holidays. I'd be out there helping if I could actually move. Hell, if I got the chance I'd pop on some rubber ears and pass myself off as an elf."

Eva poured herself a glass of orange juice.

"Somehow, I don't think that Santa would really appreciate your help. What would you do, give the action figures actual knives or something?"

"Of course not. I'd get a hold of the naughty list and spend Christmas Eve busting heads. I mean, lumps of coal? Lame. If Santa wants kids to behave, he needs to rule through fear."

Eva's response was cut off by the sound of the door slamming behind her. Chachamaru stood on the doormat, chipping bits of frost off of her joints.

"Done with your decorating?" Eva poured herself more orange juice.

"Yes, the outside lights are all hung. I just have to finish the interior."

"Good to hear that you're-" Eva choked on the juice as she registered Chachamaru's second sentence. "The interior!-? What were you planning on doing inside!-?"

"I was going to put up a Christmas tree." She kicked the snow from her feet. Eva sighed.

"We don't have time for that today!"

"We don't?"

"No! I need you to go downstairs and get the transporter set up, remember?"

"Oh, right." The robot's eyelids sagged slightly as she began to walk towards the basement.

"You can finish messing around with the tree or whatever if we have time when we get back." Eva picked up another roll. "And make sure you're fully charged before we leave. I don't want you crapping out on me."

"Can I at least hang the stockings up?" Chachamaru gestured at the three stockings draped over the recliner in the living room.

"Go get ready for tonight!" Eva banged on the table. "We don't have all day, you know!"

"Yes, mistress." Chachamaru glanced forlornly at the fireplace, but began her descent to the basement.

"Stockings, seriously?" Eva grunted as she sat at the table.

"I could finish decorating." Chachazero offered. "Just give me some of that magic juice stuff that you got from Haruna and I'll have this place looking like one of those overdecorated suburban homes by the time you get back."

"Hell no." Eva snorted. "If I did that you'd have the house surrounded by severed heads on pikes. And the last thing I need now is the headmaster yelling at me for letting you kill the students." She leaned back and stared at the ceiling. "I have better things to waste my time on than hanging socks on my wall."

* * *

"I can't believe that Evangeline is making us train on Christmas Eve!" Asuna stomped through the snow. "When it's this cold out you're supposed to sit inside and drink hot chocolate."

"Maybe Master will let us train in her resort." Even with his magic boost, Negi was having trouble keeping up. "I mean, that's where we usually train. Or maybe that castle."

Asuna grinned widely. The possibility of visiting Eva's resort had somehow escaped her mind despite the fact that it was the most-used training area.

"Okay, maybe it won't be so bad..." She turned to look at Negi, who was floundering in a snow bank behind her. "Oh come on, Negi. After all you've been through I would think you could handle a snow bank!"

"Sorry, it's just really deep..."

"HEY NEGI!"

Negi and Asuna turned to see an enormous white tiger barreling toward them. In an instant Negi and Asuna had staff and sword pointed at the oncoming cat. As it neared them, they noticed the straps on its back, trailing off into the whiteness. The tiger slowed, coming to a halt a short ways away. A large white sleigh glided out of the billowing snowflakes. As they examined the bizarre sight, Asuna and Negi realized that Haruna was holding the reins. Yue and Nodoka poked their heads out of the back of the sleigh.

"Would you like a ride, sensei?" Nodoka's voice was barely audible over the wind.

"Sure!" Asuna clamored into the contraption. "I'm assuming the tiger was Haruna's idea?"

"Of course." Yue banged her juice box on the inner wall of the sled. Frozen solid. "I myself think it's a little over the top."

Asuna reached over the edge to drag Negi into the sleigh.

"I could care less as long as I don't have to walk- ugh!" She grunted as Negi lost his footing and toppled awkwardly on top of her. "Get offa me!" She rolled him awkwardly into the seat next to her.

"Alright, let's go!" Haruna snapped the reins and the giant tiger lurched forward.

* * *

"Okay, is everything set up?"

"Yes, Mistress."

"Are your power banks full?"

"Yes, Mistress."

"Good. You may go back to hanging tinsel or whatever it was that you were doing until everyone arrives."

"Thank you, Mistress." Chachamaru bowed slightly. She lifted her stocking off of the chair where it had been hanging. Konoka had embroidered the robot's name across the top of it. Chachamaru gently hung it on one of the nails above the fireplace. On the other side of the mantle, she hung Chachazero's; normally she would have let Chachazero put it up herself, but it would probably be a while before Eva allowed her enough freedom of movement to do that.

There was a gap in the middle for Eva's stocking. Chachamaru looked at the sock in her hands as she debated whether or not she wanted to hang it. Mistress wasn't exactly a fan of all this decoration. But then again, Konoka had taken the time to embroider the stockings for all of them, and it would be a pity to not put it somewhere...

Her inner debate was interrupted by a knock on the door and muffled voices from beyond.

"Open the door, Eva! It's cold out here!"

Chachamaru left Eva's stocking on the coffee table. The girl would have to decide for herself whether to hang it or not.

The door practically sprang open as Chachamaru turned the knob, and the group poured into the room, sending cold air and snow everywhere. The robot shooed her guests away from the door and tried to close it before a snowdrift formed on the welcome mat.

Asuna stomped across the room, leaving wet, slushy footprints in her wake.

"You idiot!" She marched into the kitchen where Eva now sat, dressed in her typical gothic lolita fashion. "Why they hell are you making us train on Christams Eve! I thought you said we would have the holidays off!"

"I know, right?" Chachazero chimed in.

"Shut up." Eva threw a dinner roll at the puppet before turning back to Asuna. "Christmas Eve isn't a holiday, it's the day before a holiday."

"Oh come on! That's stupid. Everyone knows that Christmas Eve is a holiday!"

"Mistress." Chachamaru stuck her head into the kitchen. "Konoka and Setsuna have arrived. The have Anya with them. Asakura called to say that she, Sayo, and Chamo are on their way."

"Good." The short girl stood up and strode out of the kitchen, completely ignoring the redhead who was fuming behind her. "Have everybody go wait in the basement. As soon as Kaede, Chisame, and that dog boy show up, we'll be good to go."

"Hey wait a minute, I'm not done-"

"Oh hush up, Kagurazaka. If you do well this will all be over quickly. If it takes all night you'll have only yourself to blame. Now go down to the basement with everybody else."

Asuna snorted in defiance, but reluctantly shuffled out of the room. Evangeline followed after her down the narrow stairwell into the cottage's cellar.

"So can we go into the resort already?" Haruna was wringing her hands in anticipation. "It's cold down here!"

"We're not going to the resort!" Eva looked down on the group from the top of the stairs. "This is a special occasion, so I have other plans for you guys."

"What!" Yue and Nodoka were forced to latch onto Asuna's arms to prevent her from giving Eva a fist to the face. "That was the only good part of this whole freaking training regimen!" Her rant rapidly degenerated into a mess of generically angry syllables.

"Just wait here. We'll be ready to go as soon as everybody else shows up." The vampire slammed the door and began to walk towards the kitchen in hope of eating another muffin before they had to depart. Konoka, Setsuna, and Anya were loitering by the doorway, kicking snow off of their boots.

"Hello, Eva!" Konoka was way too happy for having just dragged herself through that kind of weather. "Did Chachamaru bring the stockings back?"

"Why are you making us train on Christmas Eve! You're such a grinch!" Anya stomped her foot, scattering bits of ice and frozen dirt across the floor.

"Yeah, yeah." Eva waved them towards the basement door. "Everybody else is waiting the basement. See if you can't get Kagurazaka to calm down a bit. She doesn't understand the value of practicing." She turned to glare at Anya. "And neither do _you_, apparently." The room seemed to dim slightly, and a chill ran through the air. Anya went silent and shuffled behind Konoka.

"Okay. I'll see if I can calm her down a little." Konoka put her hands on Anya's shoulders and directed her towards the cellar. Setunsa and Eva exchanged nods as they passed. Eva was about to head back to the kitchen when a flash of red caught her eye. A richly embroidered stocking sat on the coffee table in the middle of the room.

"So this is what Chachamaru was going on about..." She lifted the sock off the table for a closer look. Across the top edge, Konoka had embroidered "Evangeline" in bright gold thread. Eva glanced at the mantlepiece, noting the gap between Chachamaru's and Chachazero's stockings. She looked back down at the soft item in her hand... Was it really such a big deal to hang this thing up..?

Her thoughts were interrupted by yet another knock on the door. She dropped the stocking back on the table and looked up to see that Chachamaru was already answering the door. Within seconds, Kaede, Kotaro, and Asakura were all standing in the living room.

"Christmas Eve? Seriously?" Kotaro snorted. Eva just nodded towards the basement, and Chachamaru began directing the new arrivals into the basement. It was probably getting crowded down there, but there was only one person that they were still waiting on. They could just get over their personal space issues.

"Eyaah!" Askara shuddered before pulling out her neckline with her fingered and staring down the front of her shirt. "What are you doing!-?"

"Sorry." A small, white, furry head emerged. "It was getting kinda stuffy in there."

"He's right!" Another small white, but less furry head emerged. "If I wasn't already dead I would probably have suffocated!"

"Well, it's not exactly comfortable storing both of you in there." She plucked Sayo's diminutive voodoo doll from her cleavage and placed it on her shoulder. Chamo clamored out on his own, scrambling down Asakura's body, and across the floor into the kitchen. Asakura gestured in the ermine's general direction. "He has other plans."

"I figured as much." Eva muttered over her shoulder as she finally managed to get into the kitchen, where she was met with the sight of Chamo and Chachazero sitting on the counter, an open bottle of eggnog between them. She shook her head at them and picked up another muffin. Blueberry. It was halfway to her mouth when she was interrupted by another knock on the door. "Chachamaru, get that, will you?"

The only sound from the other room was more knocking.

"Chachamaru! Get the door!"

More knocking. Eva sighed. The robot must have gone to the basement with everyone else. She took a bite of the muffin anyway. More knocking. Eva unenthusiastically shoved herself to her feet. Loath as she was to actually bother, the effort of answering the door was less than the combined annoyance of the incessant knocking and the conversation being held by the ermine and the puppet, discussing the plethora of symbolism in _Fight Club_.

As she strode through the living room for the millionth time that day, the knocking intensified. She twisted the knob. It turned about halfway before stopping. Lock must have frozen over. Eva gave it a shake. If it weren't for the stupid seal on her powers, she could have solved the problem with a small fireball, but as it was, she'd need to get Chachamaru to use her blowtorch extension.

She turned away from the door to shout down the stairway. "Chachamaru, the lock is frozen! Get up here!"

"Yes, Mistress..." Eva could barely pick her servant's voice out of the rumble of complaining and other miscellaneous discussion. She slammed the door shut again before any of the yelling was directed toward her.

The knocking still emanated from the doorway, along with some muffled shouts. Eva tried to ignore it as she plopped herself on a chair and waited for Chachamaru. She had picked a good muffin. From the other end of the house, she could hear Chamo and Chachazero fighting over the relative merits of brandy and whiskey. And of course, there was a virtual roar of voices coming from the cellar.

She felt herself sink into the chair. How had her life come to this? Years of solitude, and how she had a gang of weirdos accosting her from every direction. And they were there at her own insistence... Maybe she was losing it...

The sound of a slamming door snapped her out of her reflections as Chachamaru emerged from the basement, and made a beeline for the door. There was brief spurt of flame from the tip of one of her fingers and the door popped open.

"EVANGELINE!" Chisame barged past Chachamaru.

"Yeah, I know, you're mad that I'm making you train on Christmas Eve." Eva stared at the ceiling and flapped her hand at the girl. "You'll get over it."

"DO YOU KNOW HOW COLD IT IS OUT THERE!-?" Chisame flailed her arms in a seemingly random direction. Her glasses seemed to be totally frosted over. "HOW HARD IS IT TO OPEN THE FREAKING DOOR!-?"

Eva put a hand to her forehead. She was already getting a headache and the training hadn't even started yet.

* * *

.

* * *

So, as usual, the story ended up being much longer than I anticipated and as such I'll have to add more chapters later.

I pretty much started with two ideas: Eva being a grinch as Chachamaru decks out the house, and another idea that I will not diclose at this time because it will give away later chapters. That undisclosed 2nd reason is why I had to have Ala Alba show up. That and because they're in the title, after all. Hopefully I'll be able to give Chachazero a little more dialogue before the end of this.

The story probably needs quite a bit more polishing, but I'm kinda in a rush to get this finished before Christmas, so I had to skimp on the editing a little.

I'm not sure why Eva is eating so many rolls and muffins, I just wanted a low-maintenance breakfast food.

But yeah, the _actual_ plot will pick up in the next chapter. This is mostly setting up Eva's attitude and other background info. Now that that's been established, the next chapter will be a bit more action-y.

Also keep in mind that while I have a rough overview of the idea, for the most part I'm making this up as I go.

Blah blah please review blah blah thanks for reading blah blah Merry Christmas :)


	2. Chapter 2

**The Night Ala Alba Saved Christmas**

**Chapter 2**

"Hey, Akira! Come check out our room!" Makie was practically bouncing around the hallway outside Akira's door. "We finally got all the decorations up! Ako, you come too!" Before either girl had a chance to move on their own, Makie took hold of their wrists and began tugging.

"Okay, we're coming!" Akira delicately pried the gymnast's fingers off of her arm.

"We've been working all day on it! We were going to do it sooner, but we had a ton of work to do with school and stuff." Makie seemed to be overflowing with even more energy than usual. She bolted into out of the room, dragging Ako along behind her. Akira followed close behind. She practically had to jog to keep up with Makie as she pranced down the hallway.

Releasing Ako's hand, she grabbed the knob and flung the door open.

"Ta-da!"

"..." There were no words to express the feelings that were spinning through Akira and Ako's heads at that moment, mainly because neither of them had ever been forced into attempting to comprehend something akin to what they were now looking at.

"It's...uh..." Akira tried to shuffle through her memory banks for an appropriate word, but was stymied by visual assault.

"It's really...something..." Ako's words, while not much of a descriptor, were somewhat accurate. The room was indeed something.

They stepped cautiously over the threshold, and into a realm of yuletide chaos. The interior of the walls were coated with what must have been dozens of strings of colored lights; all of which were blinking in different patterns. What wasn't covered by the lights was coated in layers of tinsel. Every available inch of space had some sort of kitschy decorations; ceramic snowmen, garishly colorful throws with reindeer embroidered onto them, wooden carvings of Christmas Carolers, a stuffed Santa Claus, a small Colonel Sanders figurine with a small Santa hat...

"Isn't it great!-?" Yuuna emerged from the closet where she had been rummaging. She was wearing a bright red sweater with a Christmas tree on the front, complete with small blinking LEDs. "I made that Santa hat myself!"

"Oh, yeah..." Akira looked out of the corner of her eye at a four-foot-tall inflatable snowman that sat in the corner. "It's impressive..."

"Isn't it!-?" She turned back to Makie, who now had a pair of foam antlers hanging from her head. "Oh, wait! We need the music. She punched a button on the nearby stereo, and soothing sound of Nat King Cole's voice filled the room.

"How long did it take you to do all this?" Ako kicked at the lumps of fake snow that littered the floor of the room. "I mean, it must have taken quite a while..." As she stepped forward, she ducked, w under one of the many plastic snowflakes that dangled from the ceiling.

"Yeah, we've been working on this all day. It took us like an hour just to unpack everything." Yuuna carefully stepped over a large stuffed reindeer. "Although the tree probably took the longest." She gestured at the corner of the room, where there sat a short, bush-shaped tree wad of lights and colored glass bulbs with a gaudily dressed angel sitting atop it. "Although, it's really more of Christmas Branch than anything." Yuuna looked off into space. "Some landscapers were trimming the trees outside the dorm, so we grabbed it from their trash heap."

"I see.." Ako scratched her head as she stared at the mass, trying to find the

"Look at this!" Makie interrupted, pointing to the end of the room. "We even made our own fireplace!" Sitting against the far wall was a large cardboard box with a crudely drawn brick pattern doodled around the edged. In the center was a blur of reds and yellows that was apparently supposed to be fire. On the top rested a surprisingly intricate nativity scene. With one incongruous element.

"Very nice." Ako patted Makie on the back. "It looks great."

"Um...Makie..." Akira took a closer look. "Why is Batwoman visiting baby Jesus?"

"We kinda lost Balthasar, and we needed a replacement." Yuna shrugged. "I wanted to go with Optimus Prime, but Makie wanted it to be a human character."

"Oh, I forgot the stockings!" Makie jumped up and buzzed over to the closet, where she started digging around furiously. Yuuna quickly leaned in, waving at Akira and Ako to come closer.

"I think I should tell you something..." She whispered. "Makie...kinda still believes in Santa."

"What!-?" Ako nearly shouted it, but held it (mostly) in, resulting in a sqeak.

"She still believes in Santa? Really?" Akira was incredulous. Makie was a bit of an idiot, but to believe Santa was real...

"I don't know, but I'm not going to completely ruin Christmas for her by letting the cat out of the bag now!"

"Well, we can't just let her keep going on like this.." Ako began to fidget. She hated keeping secrets.

"I'll tell her eventually, okay?" Yuuna put a hand to her forehead. "Just not until after Christmas. Can you just keep this under wraps and let her have one more Christmas?"

"Okay, okay..." Akira reluctantly muttered.

"Got the stockings!" Makie emerged from the closet, eyes sparkling. She darted forward and pinned the knitted footwear onto to top edge of the box. "Can't forget those. Santa has to leave the loot somewhere!"

The other three girls exchanged awkward glances.

* * *

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Evangeline had finally herded everyone into the basement, and now things could begin. If only everyone would shut up. "Okay, here's the deal. If you all quit complaining and just do what I tell you, you'll be back at dorms in no time. If you screw around and keep complaining, you're not getting home until New Year's, understand?"

There was a murmur of discontented assent from most of the group. Konoka and Kaede seemed happy enough, and Negi, while not _happy_ was at least willing to listen to her. But everybody else looked like they'd rather be at the dentist. Maybe this had been a bad idea. Oh, well, already went through the effort of getting everybody over here. Might as well go through with the idea.

"Okay, here's the drill. The reason we are not using the resort is because you people have to learn to fight in an uncontrolled environment. The localized terrain areas in my resort are too small to be effective. We are need of a larger area in which to practice wide-area techniques and group tactics."

More cheerless babble. Eva stared daggers at the most vocal members of her audience until they gave her a begrudging silence. She continued her speech, undeterred.

"Because of the need for a larger area, I have rigged up this teleportation system glyph." She gestured at a complex circle of runes engraved on a section of the floor. "This glyph will transport us to a location appropriate for the training that I have planned."

As she inhaled, she noticed a nervous hand being raised.

"Yes, Miyazaki?"

"Um, if we aren't going to be inside the resort, how are you going to come with us? Doesn't that barrier thing keep you from leaving campus?"

"I'm glad you asked." Evangeline had planned on explaining that anyway, but the fact that Nodoka asked about it at least meant that the she was using her brain. Sad that the same couldn't be said for everyone. "I will not be physically accompanying you. Instead, I will send this along." She snapped her fingers, and there was a burst of smoke and a good deal of coughing.

As the air cleared, everyone could see Eva standing right where she had been. Right next to her, floating a few inches above the floor, was another Eva.

The Eva on the ground chuckled at the surprised expressions on the faces made by her classmates. Really, by this point they should be used to this kind of thing.

"This is a specially crafted magical duplicate. I will be control it directly from here so I can monitor your exercises and direct you. And you had better listen, because I control the teleporter! Now everybody get yourselves bundled up and get your butts through the portal. My duplicate here will follow shortly with additional instructions."

Fifteen minutes and a large amount of grousing later, Eva watched as the last of the tightly bundled trainees disappeared into a flash of light. She wasn't sure whether they were very stupid or very brave to teleport to an unknown location on just her word. And she was a self-proclaimed Mistress of Darkness; the infamous boogeyman of the magical world. Imagine what a _good guy_ could get them to do.

"Do you have all of the shield components ready?"

Chachamaru nodded. "Yes. Fully charged and tested."

"Good." The vampire tapped her foot. "Go through and get the shield up. I'll start the connection to the duplicate going and send it through as soon as I'm done. It might take a few minutes because of the school barrier though. If the duplicate doesn't come through in twenty minutes or so, come back through and find out what's happening on my end."

"Yes, Mistress." Chachamaru carried the shield runes onto the teleporter and was gone.

Eva sighed. "I should have known that this was going to be a chore." She began a whispered chant of ancient Greek. Normally, she wouldn't even have to bother with the incantation, but that stupid barrier wreaked havoc on any spells she attempted to cast. It had taken her forever to design one that would let her send an avatar beyond the limits of the campus. This thing was a confused combination of half a dozen different spells, mainly illusions with some consciousness-sharing spells on the side.

"Aw crap." She groaned. There was a connection, but it was going to take a while to get a connection strong enough to last through the teleporter. She was going to have to wait for more magic energy to build up. Hopefully it would only take a few minutes. But still, it was a pain.

She emerged from the cellar to the sound of the ermine and the puppet having a heated discussion about the quality of the final episode of Seinfeld. She snatched a final muffin (banana nut this time) and retreated from the room before she was drawn into the conversation. Her body sunk into the sofa as she munched. That stocking still sat on the table. She finished off the muffin, wiped her hand on her skirt, and reached for the stocking

She gently turned it over in her fingers, feeling the softness of the fabric. Why was Chachamaru so enthusiastic about these things. It served no purpose. It wasn't like any thing good was going to get put in there. She closed her eyes and whispered the followup incantation. When she opened them, she found herself floating in the basement, staring through the eyes of the duplicate. She closed her eyes again and found herself back on the couch.

She downed a final sip of tea and settled herself on the sofa so that when she returned from the training, her body wouldn't be too sore. Her eyes closed a third time, and she drifted the duplicate onto the teleporter.

* * *

Back in the dorm, Ako continued to decorate her room, in a much more tasteful and subdued fashion than their friends. Christmast decorations were nice and all, but Makie and Yuuna's room looked as if some sort of Christmas Specialty Warehouse had vomited into it. A few winter-themed pillows and a small artificial tree would add more than enough Christmas cheer to the abode.

Out in the hallway, Makie and Yuuna made a determined effort to exhaust their remaining supply of Christmas-related objects. There was simply no more space in their room; the over-abundance of décor now spilled into the rest of the dorm.

At the end of the hallway, stood the 3-A Christmas "tree". Makie and Yuuna had press-ganged Akira into helping them recover it from the landscapers' garbage heap and carry it up to their floor. While this tree was decorated with slightly more restraint (the foliage was actually visible), there was still the small issue of it being wider than it was tall. Not that it bothered Makie or Yuuna in the slightest.

"Aaahhhh." Steam cascaded out of the bathroom as Akira emerged from the shower. "I thought I'd never get all of that sap out of my hair." She glanced around the room, admiring Ako's handiwork. "I like it."

"Thanks." Ako beamed. "I tried to be a little more classy when I put everything up. Sorry to say that I can't say the same for them..." She waved a hand at the hallway. Akira sighed.

"Are they still putting stuff up?"

"Probably."

Akira stuck her head into the hallway, groaning almost immediately as she caught a glimpse of the tree. Apparently the two girls had run out of lights about halfway up, and in lieu of a fitting tree topper, a crude cardboard star with light bulb in the middle was duct-taped to the highest branch. Crooked, of course. Hung around it were several stockings, and a lot of gym socks.

"We ran out of stockings and had to improvise." Akira turned around to see Yuuna and Makie standing behind her. "Hopefully nobody will complain about it. At least the gym socks are new."

Akira looked closer. Each of the socks had a name scribbled on it in magic marker.

"It's not pretty, but we wanted everybody to have one." Makie giggled. "I'd hate for anybody to miss out because they didn't have a stocking to hang up."

Yuuna and Akira chuckled nervously as Makie continued her explanation.

"Not everybody in the class is here though; the people who don't live in the dorms will have to get their own." She put a finger against her cheek. "Although I think Konoka said that she made stockings for everybody who lives somewhere else, so they should be covered. Oh!" Her eyes suddenly widened. "I have to make some cookies to leave out for Santa! And some carrots."

"Couldn't you just pick up some at the convenience store?" Ako scratched her head nervously.

"Of course not! You have to leave homemade cookies for Santa or when he makes his list for the next Christmas you'll start out with a penalty! I have to go get some cooking stuff!" She buzzed down the hallway and disappeared around a corner.

"I better go keep an eye on her. Don't want her to set off the fire alarm again." Yuuna followed Makie down the hall.

Akira sighed as she looked over the mess of stockings and socks hanging from the wall. Ako put a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"I guess somebody's going to have to fill those, huh?"

* * *

The twelve girls and two boys stood shivering, buffeted from all sides by the icy wind as they watched the robot girl went about activating the massive shield system that she had brought along. Wherever they were, the place made Mahora feel like a tropical island.

"W-w-w-what the heck is Eva thinking, dragging us out here?" Asuna could barely talk through her chattering teeth. "We're going to freeze to death!"

"M-m-maybe once the shield gets put up, it'll cut down on the wind..." Negi buried his face in his scarf.

As he finished speaking, a green glow rose up around them like a wall of transparent light, coming together above the group as if it were sealing them in a giant bubble. To their dismay, the wind was not reduced in the slightest.

"So much for that theory..." Asuna mumbled. "Where's that stupid vampire anyway? If she's going to send us all out here, she could at least come along..."

There was a flash of light, and Eva appeared, floating above the teleportation rune.

"Chachamaru, is the barrier set up?"

"Yes, mistress."

"Good." She turned to the rest of her pupils, who were huddling in a snowdrift, futilely attempting to obtain some type of warmth. "Alright everybody, here's what's going on. I'm controlling this body remotely from my home, but you are going to treat it as if it was really me, got it?"

Muttered replies of assent.

"Good. This barrier is set up to block any sort of magical emanations; the last thing we want is somebody coming to check up on us. I'm quite sure none of you have the magical power required to damage it, so don't worry about it." She pointed at Asuna. "Except you. You keep that magic fan of yours away from the barrier. Now then..." The grin that crossed her face would have made their blood run cold, if it wasn't freezing already. "Let's get started. I have some _plans_ for you."

* * *

"We've got to do something about this.." Ako twiddled her fingers nervously. "I mean, what's going to happen when she goes out there tomorrow and there isn't anything in the stockings.."

"I know, okay?" Yuuna's brow furrowed as she tried to think of something. "A depressed Makie is a very very bad Makie. Believe me, I know. I know I have to let the cat out of the bag, but I can't do it this close to Christmas..."

"Where is she, anyway?" Ako asked.

"I found a box of wreaths in the closet. I sent her out to hang them on the doors. I needed her out of my hair so I could figure out what to do." She sighed into her hot chocolate. "I hate to see her sad, and when she goes out and sees those empty stockings tomorrow, it's going to be horrible for both of us."

"What if the stockings aren't empty." Akira stared at her mug.

"What do you mean?" Yuuna looked up.

"We could go down to that convenience store and pick up some cheap gifts and put them in the stockings tonight while Makie is sleeping."

"Akira!" Ako stared at her roommate. "That's very...devious of you."

"I just don't want Christmas to turn into a disaster." The tall girl turned to Yuuna. "You'll tell her eventually, right?"

"Yeah..." She twirled her ponytail in her fingers. "I guess that's the plan then. You.." She pointed at Ako. "..stay here and keep Makie occupied. If she asks, we went to get snacks. Akira, you're coming with me." She sprang to her feet and rushed out the door. Akira stood up, stretched, and shuffled along after Yuuna. Ako watched them as the walked down the hallway.

"This isn't going to end well."

* * *

The pseudo-Eva hung in the cold air, surveying the drills that were going on below her. Yue and Haruna had been practicing coordinated group attacks with assistance from Nodoka and her artifact. At the far end of the shielded area, Setsuna and Kaede were sparring; their fancy techniques creating enormous flashes of light and energy in the darkness. Anya and Chisame were undergoing "survival training", otherwise known as "use your fire magic to not freeze to death". Nearby, Kotaro and Ku Fei were practicing their martial arts. Around the perimeter of the shield Chachamaru circled slowly, checking the stability of the magical force field. Konoka and Asakura wandered throughout the area, healing up wounded combatants and taking pictures to document the event for some nefarious purpose.

In the dead center of the area were Asuna and Negi. Those were the ones that the duplicate's eyes were focused on. They were the real reason that Eva had gone through the trouble of setting everything up. Bringing everyone else along was just an extra bonus.

All other activity stopped for a moment as brightness filled the sky, emanating from the giant ball of lightning that Negi had summoned above his head. Every pair of eyes was on him as he hurled the mass of electricity to the ground, where Asuna was waiting. She bracing herself for a moment before whipping her enormous sword at the mess of bolts that descended towards her. There was a soft whoosh as the light was extinguished like a candle.

"No no no!" Even the pseudo-Eva's enhanced voice was barely audible over the wind. "What are you doing!-?"

"What are you talking about?" Asuna shouted up from the ground. "Didn't you see that? I totally blocked it!"

"You blocked it because _he.._" She pointed at Negi, who was hovering on his staff fifty feet in the air. "..gave you time to block it!" She turned to the boy. "When you have a spell going, you don't stand there holding onto the giant ball of energy! Don't actually activate the spell unless you're going to use it! You hesitate like that and of course she'll be able to block it!"

"But I don't want to-"

"Shut up, boya." The pseudo-Eva turned back to Asuna. "If you were actually fighting, he's not going to wait for you to get into prime blocking position. He's just going to blast you. Now do it again, and no hesitation this time!"

"But Evangelin-"

"No buts! Blast her again! And put more magic into it this time!"

"But I-"

"NOW!"

The sky glowed with electric light as Negi called out the words of the incantation. There was a cacophonous crash as he flung the spell to the ground. The other girls watched in horror as a wide span of frozen ground collapsed under the force of the spell, disappearing into a dark pit.

"Asuna!" Negi dropped out of the sky.

Within seconds everyone was gathered around the edge of the pit; from which was shining an ominous light.

"Where the heck is that light coming from?" Haruna leaned over the edge and squinted. The worried frown on her face slowly turned into a wide grin as the smoke from the explosion began to dissipate.

Chisame's frown remained, but shifted from an expression of worry to one of annoyance.

"No. No. This cannot be real. It can't be."

The walls of the pit were completely coated with bright golden trim, shimmering in the darkness. Looking closer, the girls could make out a series of floors, balconies, walkways, and all sorts of other things that weren't supposed to be inside a random cave in the middle of nowhere.

But that wasn't what what caused Chisame's exclamation. Her eyes were fixed on the very bottom level of the bizarre hole. Asuna lay amidst the piles of snow, rock, and gaudy rubble, slightly charred but none the worse for wear. Immediately next to her, partially buried in the debris, was a portly, bearded man in a bright red suit.

* * *

.

* * *

Finally, I managed to get to the main part of the story. Somebody somewhere probably saw this coming, but that doesn't really matter.

Next chapter will _hopefully_ be up within the week.

Please review, yadda yadda yadda.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Night Ala Alba Saved Christmas**

**Chapter 3**

"Evangeline, why would you set up a training ground on top of Santa's workshop?" Yue was indeed shaken by the sudden turn of events, but compared to (almost) everyone else, she was downright stoic.

"It does seem like an odd location." Kaede was completely unaffected.

"It isn't like I knew that it was going to be here." Eva snorted. "I just chose the general region. The exact location that we teleported to was chosen at random. The fact that we ended up right on the north pole is just a coincidence."

"Oh, come on, people!" Haruna barged into the middle of the conversation. "Why are you talking about boring stuff like that? We're sitting in Santa's workshop! How amazing is that!-? I mean, just look at this place!"

She flung her hands in the air and began to spin, as if she were gesturing towards the entire area; mazes of conveyer belts carrying toys, hundreds of short pointy-eared green-clad people scurrying around, flashing lights, golden trim, the smell of pine trees...

"I suppose it is quite surprising that we would end up in a place like this." Kaede rubbed her chin as she surveyed the massive room.

"That's quite the understatement." Yue muttered as she attempting to form some sort of logical explanation for what she was seeing.

"I'm just concerned about what's going on." Setsuna nervously twiddled her fingers.

"Don't be so pessimistic!" Haruna slapped the samurai girl on the back. "It's _Santa_. He's not going to do anything horrible to us. And nobody's keeping us anywhere. I mean, these elf guys confiscated Asakura's camera, but that's about it. Negi and Kotaro are basically running amok in the action figure room, and Nodoka has been in the library for the past half hour."

"That's not what I'm worried about. Asuna fell a long way, and we haven't seen Santa since the elves carted him off..." She leaned in close to Haruna. "What if we killed Santa?" Haruna shrugged.

"I guess Negi takes over, then. That's how it works, isn't it?"

"You honestly think that-"

"Setchan!" Konoka latched onto Setsuna from behind. "I found some really cute outfits and the elves said that you could try them on!"

"Wait, what?"

"Come on!"

Before Setsuna could respond again, Konoka had dragged her through a nearby door.

"Looks like she's enjoying herself." Kaede observed.

The Ninja scanned the area. A few levels up, she could see Negi and Kotaro chasing each other with nerf guns, as Anya chased them along shouting about how immature they were being. A short ways away, Asakura was interviewing some elves, scribbling furiously away at her notepad as Sayo hovered nearby, testing her possession abilities on a pile of stuffed animals. At the far end of the room, Chisame stood before an enormous computer bank, arms folded, speaking to the elves who were furiously typing away. No doubt they were discussing the technical specs of the network.

Kaede sighed as her eyes stopped on a small side door label "Medical". Both Asuna and the Big Man himself had been carted through it by gangs of elves mere seconds after Negi had destroyed the roof of the chamber. The strange little people had practically popped out of the ground around them as they had stood on the edge of the newly formed hole, requesting that they come down into the workshop to wait while they surveyed the damage. That had been almost an hour ago.

The Pseudo-Eva had spent most of that time sulking, floating stoically in the corner of the room. Everybody else had been too distracted by their surroundings, but for the more "serious" members of the team, the novelty was starting to give way. Santa's workshop was awesome, but the fact that Santa was MIA made everything feel a little off.

"Hmmm..." Kaede watched as Negi and Kotaro's dart-gun war was put on hold by an especially official-looking elf. They began following him towards the stairs. Kaede turned her head to see another elf leading Asakura along the balcony. She felt a poke on her leg. There was another elf; a little less than half her height. He had a goatee, pointy shoes, and a hat that seemed to be too small for his head.

"Come with me please. Mr. Claus is ready to see you now."

"Really?" Yue swallowed. "We're going to meet Santa Claus?"

"AWESOME!" Haruna thrust a fist into the air as she began to stroll happily behind the elf as he waved at the girls.

The pseudo-Eva sighed and began to drift slowly and silently behind the rest of the group.

* * *

"Okay, I've got a couple boxes of candy canes. Is that enough?" Yuuna held up the candy.

"I doubt it." Akira was poking around in a discount bin. "Makie probably thinks too much of Santa to believe that he'd skimp on presents like this. I've got a bunch of these stuffed animal keychains. They're on clearance."

"Okay, that's good." Yuuna stuffed her candy canes into Akira's basket. "I feel like we need something else, though."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. It just feels like we need more than two things per stocking. Grab a bunch of those cheap superballs or something."

The two girls dumped the pile of toys and candy on the counter. The cashier began lethargically picking through the pile, the scanner beeping as he dropped the items into a large plastic bag.

"That'll be six thousand yen."

"Six thousand!-?" Yuuna slammed her hand on the counter. "That's ridiculous!"

Akira shoved her to the side and began rummaging in her purse, eventually placing the money calmly on the counter and taking the bag.

"We'll split it when we get back to the dorm."

"I can't believe I'm spending this much cash on Makie's delusions. Why am I helping you pay for this? It was your idea."

"Because she's your friend, and because you're the one who wants us to pretend that Santa is real." Akira buttoned up her coat. "Just be glad that Ako and I are helping you. Besides, at least we're doing something nice for the rest of the class."

"I guess you're right." Yuuna pulled her large red and green knit hat out of her pocket. "Let's get back to the dorm."

The bell on the door dinged as the girls headed into the swirling snow.

* * *

The group shuffled nervously through great door into the dining room. The long table at the center of the room was piled high with enormous platters of cookies, candy canes, and pitchers of eggnog. But no one was looking at the table. They were too busy staring at the man seated at its head.

"Ho ho ho! Welcome!" He waved enthusiastically. "Come take a seat! Grab some cookies!"

Santa Claus looked exactly like one would except Santa Claus to look. His white, fluffy beard reached almost to his large waist. His belly shook as he let out a hearty laugh. Wrapped around him was a thick, soft robe, as red as a tomato. The only odd aspect of his appearance was his feet. Or rather, his foot. One of them was in a large black leather boot with a wide gold buckle. This was normal. The other foot was wrapped in a hard cast, and propped up on a stool.

"Your friend here was just explaining exactly what happened."

Asuna waved at her friends, smiling awkwardly. She had a few bandages wrapped around her forehead and arm, but didn't seem to be too badly injured. Santa continued to speak as the rest of the group took their seats.

"She got a little banged up by fall, but she's okay. I simply wanted to inform you of what happened."

"So, uh...what did happen..." Negi fidgeted in his seat looking down at his plate.

"Don't be so nervous! It's not like this was your fault. There's no way you could have known that my workshop was under your training ground. That's what the cloaking shield is there for, after all."

"Huh?" Negi looked up. "Cloaking shield?"

"Of course!" Santa released a deep laugh. "We can't have people popping in here all the time." He pointed at Asuna. "That anti-magic of hers just weakened the shield a little. That's why the roof collapsed and fell on me."

"Sorry about that..." Asuna scratched the back of her head.

"Think nothing of it. You couldn't possibly have known." He patted her lightly on the back before looking up at the gang sitting around his table, most of whom were eagerly attacking the piles of candy on the table. "I hope you are all enjoying yourselves?"

"Oh yes!"

"Yes, thank you!"

"Fnmank nyu!"

"But what about your leg?" Negi pointed.

"Oh, that." The man sighed. "That is part of the reason I wished to meet with you. It seems that my leg has been broken."

There was a gasp, oddly enough, considering that everyone had already seen the cast.

"Maybe I can do something!" Konoka pulled her artifact out of her coat.

"Please do not worry about me." Santa reached out his hand gestured for her to sit back down. "The three minute limit for your artifact has passed already, and a number of my elves are well versed in white magic. I will make a full recovery."

"That's good." Asuna piped up. "At least I won't have to worry about being the person who crippled Santa Claus."

"Yes, while that is true, there is still another issue."

"What is it?" Negi munched on a cookie.

"Due to this injury, I will be unable to make my deliveries this year."

"WHAT!-?" Everyone jumped to their feet.

"Oh crap." There was a thud as Asuna banged her head on the table. "I totally ruined Christmas."

* * *

Akira slumped down on the sofa. They had managed to get their convenience store loot into the room, although not without incident. Ako's plan to distract Makie had involved hanging yet more decorations in the dorm. Of course, this meant that she was still buzzing around the hallway when Akira and Yuuna returned, unable to carry the massive bags of stuff without getting caught. After half an hour of fruitless waiting, Ako had thrown a rope out the window to haul the stuff up. At least there was only one step left in the plan. Hopefully Makie was a deep enough sleeper that they could fill the stockings without waking her.

* * *

"Christmas is not ruined." Asuna looked up to see Santa smiling broadly at her. "Not yet, anyway. Fortunately, the majority of the gifts can still be delivered, even if I cannot do my yearly run."

"So do you like have a back up or something?" Haruna talked through a mouthful of cookies. "Or have like a robot or elves or something?"

"Nothing like that." He chuckled. "Contrary to popular belief, I don't have to deliver gifts to _every_ house. I'm only responsible for North America, Australia, and Japan. My cousin Nick usually takes care of Europe. My dad usually does South America, Uncle Jing covers India...Most of the presents are going to be okay. But of course, that still leaves the matter of covering the Pacific Rim. Which is why I have a request to ask of you all."

"WE'LL TOTALLY DO IT!" Haruna jumped up, a rather disturbing glint in her eye. "You're going to ask us to help do your deliveries, aren't you?"

"That was the idea, yes." Santa gave her a thumbs up. "What about the rest of you? Between everyone here, you should be able to make all of the deliveries."

"Uh, give a us a minute." Negi gestured everyone into a corner of the room. Santa watched the huddle over his glasses as he listened to the whispered conversation. The group broke up and Negi turned around to face him, a determined look on his face. "Yes, we will help you. We need to take responsibility for the problems that we caused."

"Good." Santa smiled as he rubbed his gloved hands together. "We had better get to work then."

* * *

.

* * *

Okay, this chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but it's finals week, so give me a break. This was annoying to write because I had so many characters present, but nothing for most of them to do. I'm planning to split them into smaller groups next time around, so more characters get screentime. And next time we'll have a little more time with Santa.

Hopefully I can finish this up in one more chapter, but then again, this story was _supposed_ to be a oneshot, so we'll see how it goes.

I also greatly appreciate any reviews, I'm aware that I could probably have done a lot better with this story and any sort of feedback would be great.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Night Ala Alba Saved Christmas**

**Chapter 4**

"...and this is our garage." The door silently swung open, allowing light to pour into the dark room. There was a restrained gasp as the light reveals upwards of a dozen sleighs of various color, size , and shape. "That's the main one sleigh there." Santa waved his hand at the enormous golden sled sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the room. "But you won't be using those; your lack of experience means we're going to have to split you into groups, so you'll be taking the smaller sleighs. Just as well, because it takes all 8 reindeer to pull the big one."

"Can I be in this one?" Haruna wrapped her knuckles against one of the sleds, one that had a much more pointy design scheme and a flame motif. "It looks awesome!"

"Sure." Santa chuckled as he shifted himself in his hovering La-Z-boy. "I'll have my elves prepare it for takeoff."

"Um, excuse me..." Santa looked over to see Chisame scratching her head. "May I ask you a question?"

"Ask away!"

"Why exactly do you have a sled that looks like that?"

"Joyriding." He grinned.

"Joyriding?"

"I have to do something to relax during the 363 days of the year that aren't Christmas or Christmas Eve. One of my nephews designed it for me."

"Okay..." Chisame massaged her temples. "So you're really going to trust us with this? I mean, isn't it a little ridiculous to trust a bunch of kids that you just met to take over your job?" She eyed her compatriots nervously as they milled around the room, examining the various vehicles.

"Oh ho ho!" The floating chair shook as its occupant laughed. "I've been doing this for year, so I'm a pretty good judge of character. I know what kind of people I can trust."

"Even her?" Chisame pointed at Haruna, who was balancing on the front edge of the fiery sleigh, barking orders at beasts that she imagined were pulling the contraption. She turned toward Chisame. Apparently her hearing was better than the girl gave her credit for.

"I heard tha-whoa!" She began flailing her arms in a futile attempt to maintain her balance, ultimately falling into the front seat of the sled. Her head popped up over the railing. "Are you insinuating that my conduct has been anything other than impeccable over the course of the past year!-? I think Santa would know whether or not I'm worthy of being entrusted with such a ponderous task!"

"Actually, your record did raise a few red flags."

"What!-?" Haruna's jaw dropped, and Chisame let a smug smile cross her lips at the sight. "How have I been anything other than a perfectly upstanding person?"

"Well..." Santa began flipping through the wad of papers on his clipboard. "There was that incident where you used your artifact to create a clone of your teacher..."

"Oh, right..."

"And several different occasions involving clones of your roommates."

Haruna blushed.

"Not to mention your attempt to make syrup using the World Tree..."

"Okay, okay! I get it! Maybe I haven't been _perfect_, but I can still handle this."

"Oh don't worry yourself over it, you're still on the 'nice' list." Santa stuck the clipboard into a pocket on the side of his chair. "Despite a few isolated incidents, you've been doing pretty well lately, and your roommates have been a good influence on you. They'll be in your delivery group, so I believe you'll be capable of getting the job done. Don't prove me wrong, alright?"

"Yes, sir!" Haruna couldn't think of anything else to do, so she gave him a military salute.

* * *

"I still can't believe that you let those kids take over your job like that." The pseudo-Eva muttered as she poked at the half-eaten cookie on her plate. "I wouldn't trust that bunch to do my laundry."

"You don't give them enough credit." Santa cracked his knuckles.

"And you don't know them as well as I do." She grunted. "And don't give me that 'I'm a good judge of character' stuff. I've been around a pretty long time, you know."

"Yes, and you spent most of that time alone." She glared at him, but if he noticed it, he didn't let it affect him in the slightest. "Or with that psychotic puppet of yours. Don't think I haven't been paying attention." He tapped the side of his head with his finger. "And I know that you didn't enjoy it as much as you like to think."

"What, you think that the reason I keep all these lunatics around is because I'm lonely?" She banged her fist on the table. "I just needed some minions to do my bidding. That's it." She shoved the other half of her cookie into her mouth.

Santa just smiled.

* * *

"Why can't I drive?" Haruna slumped down in the seat of the sleigh.

"Because Nodoka is a better driver than you." Yue muttered. "That, and Santa instructed us not to give you the reigns." She leaned forward in her seat. "Isn't that right, Dasher?"

One of the two reindeer towing the sleigh through the air twisted its neck to look back at the girls.

"Yup. The big man himself told us to land immediately if the girl with glasses tried to take over."

"Why exactly do I need to steer you guys anyway?" Nodoka asked. "I mean, you aren't exactly regular reindeer..."

"Well, it's true that we aren't regular reindeer..." Dancer replied. "But it's also true that we have no idea where we're going. Believe me, Santa tried to teach us to find our way on our own once, and it was a huge failure."

"Really?" Nodoka gave the reigns a gentle tug, and the whole contraption began to drift to the left.

"Yeah." Dasher chuckled. "We were supposed to be covering the western seaboard, but we ended up in Iceland."

"Hey, you mind if I turn on the radio?" Haruna interrupted.

"Fine with me." Dancer shouted back over his shoulder. "It really gets kinda boring up here."

"You might as well." Yue shrugged. "It's going to be a long night."

"I wonder what kind of music Santa has on here."

"Christmas music, obviously." Haruna awkwardly half-climbed over, half-squeezed past Yue to get to the radio. "I mean, what else would he have his radio set to..." There was a click as she poked the leftmost button.

"**CAN I PLAY WITH MADNESS!-?**"

The three girls stared through wide eyes at the radio, as it blasted a raucous guitar riff.

"You know..." Haruna scratched her head as she watched the two reindeer bobbing their heads furiously in time with the music. "...I wouldn't have called that one."

* * *

Akira edged her door open as slowly as she could manage. She peered across the hallway through the gap. Makie and Yuuna's door was closed; and there was no sign of either of them. That was a good sign; Makie was probably asleep. Hopefully Yuuna remembered her job: eat the cookies Makie had left out and fill the stockings in their room. Akira's job was to fill the stockings that Makie had hung in the hallway.

She quietly pushed the door open the rest of the way. The strings of Christmas lights covered the hall in a dim glow. Bag slung over her shoulder, she began to tiptoe towards the line of stockings on the far wall. If all went well, nobody would leave their rooms. It was almost four in the morning, after all. Even 3-A wouldn't stay up that late. Hopefully.

She was halfway to her goal when she heard a great clatter from the door at the end off the hallway across from the tree Makie and Yuuna had set up. A cold sweat formed on Akira's forehead as she slowly turned to see who had caught her. Standing in the doorway, bearing a great black bulging sack, was a figure clothed in a red plush suit.

The figure looked up to see Akira staring. As Akira watched, the stranger groaned and put a hand to their forehead.

"Oh crap."

* * *

"Hey, look at this!" Asuna grabbed Negi and yanked him over to look at the little blinking dot on the GPS screen. The sleigh started shuddering violently.

"Hey! Let go of him!" Chisame pulled Negi out of Asuna's grip. "He can't steer properly when you're latched onto him like that." The boy slid himself back over to his seat. "What is it that you're so excited about anyway?"

"Our next stop is at Mahora!" Asuna grinned widely as she pointed at the digital map installed in the sleigh's dashboard.

"Hey, I can see the World Tree!" Negi pointed at a glowing blotch on the dark horizon. "What were those special instructions that Santa gave us about delivering to Mahora?"

"We had special instructions?" Asuna stared cluelessly into the night.

Chisame groaned.

"Don't any of you people ever pay attention? Mahora's magic barrier interferes with the sleigh's cloaking and time dilation devices, so we have to turn them off before we pass through the shield."

"Oh, that does sound familiar..." Negi mumbled to himself. "What about the spacial dilator?"

"That won't be affected. Seriously, just because it's Santa, you think that you don't have to be serious about anything..." She took her glasses off and began using her scarf to scrub the frost off.

"Okay, I'm turning off the time dilation and cloaking." Negi flipped a few switches on the dashboard and the world, which had been drifting lazily around them, suddenly sprang into motion. The bubble of accelerated time that had surrounded the sleigh was gone. He felt a pulse of magic energy as they glided through the Mahora barrier. "Coming in for a landing. Donner, Blitzen, you can land on the top of that building over there."

"Roger." The reindeer descended slowly to the roof of 3-A's dormitory.

"Slower! We don't have the cloak on, so we can't afford to make any noise!" Chisame whispered loudly at the reindeer.

There was a crunch as they glided slowly into a large bank of snow that had gathered on the roof of the dorm.

"Alright, the time stretching thing is turned off, so we're going to have to make this quick." Asuna turned around and kneeled on her seat, reaching into the bin in the back of the sleigh. "Can you hand me the list?" Negi handed her a roll of papers with names and numbers written all over it. "Okay..." She entered the code, and there was a quiet humming as the portal built into the back of the sleigh activated, giving the redhead access to the pocket dimension that contained their load of presents.

Several large sacks of gifts toppled out of the warp into the front of the sleigh. Unlike their other stops, time was going at normal speed. This would have to be a short stop.

"Alright." Negi heaved one of the bags over his shoulder. "I'll handle the boys' dorms. I'll drop Asuna off at the high school girls' dorms. Chisame, you can stay here and do the middle school. Make sure you remember to wear your coat!" With that, Negi and Asuna climbed onto the staff and began to float into the night.

"Hey, wait! You said all I had to do was watch the sleigh! I don't know anything about delivering presents!"

"We don't have time! And you know your way around here anyway. You'll be fine!" And they were gone, leaving Chisame alone on the roof.

"Ugh. Guess I should get this overwith." She took the coat that Santa had given her and threw it over her shoulders; everybody had received one. They were supposed to wear it when they went into the houses to do their deliveries. Fittingly enough, it was very fuzzy and red, with even fluffier white trim around the edges. It went down almost to her ankles. She pulled the wide black belt tight around her waist. It was more comfortable than she had expected.

"This is so ridiculous. I feel like I'm in a crappy Christmas special or something." She swung the sack over her shoulder. The sudden shift of weight pulled her off of her feet, and into one of the nearby snowbanks. "Ugh." She hauled herself out of the pile of snow, and dragged the bag down the stairwell.

A short while later, she found herself standing the stairwell. The floor of class 3-A was the only one that remained. She had been putting it off; she felt ridiculous enough without prancing around her home turf in this ridiculous outfit. If someone saw her... She took a deep breath and shoved the door open.

She began to stride into the hallway, she felt herself jerk backward. The bag had snagged on the door. With stifled grunt, she gave a solid tug. The bag came free, and she toppled backward, crashing loudly into a bunch of plastic lawn ornaments that some airhead had set up in the hallway. She scrambled to her feet, anxious to put a stop to the noise. She swung the bag over her shoulder and spun around.

What she saw caused her to put her palm to her forehead and groan.

"Oh crap."

Akira was standing in the middle of the hallway, staring right at her. _How the heck am I going to explain this?_

_

* * *

_

"All I'm wondering is that if all you wanted is evil minions, why don't you just build some more of those robot maids you have around everywhere? Many evil masterminds throughout the years have used robotic servants to do their bidding."

"Those aren't minions, those are just mooks! Puppets!" Eva downed her sixth glass of eggnog. It wasn't alcoholic, and even if it was, the fact that it was a magical puppet into which the real Eva was projecting her consciousness meant that drunkenness was impossible. Even so, Evangeline was becoming slightly unhinged. "_Real_ minions require loyalty! Can't get loyalty from a robot. The good guys always have some sort of hacker that could reprogram them or turn them all off or something. Not worth the trouble."

"You do realize that none of your trainees show the slightest bit of interest in becoming anyone's evil minions?"

"Oh come on! The way I figure, I should be able to get at least one of them on my side." She tried to refill her glass, only to find the pitcher empty. "And I dare you to tell me that Haruna wouldn't be an evil minion. That girl is probably more bent on world domination than I am."

"That's probably true, but she's nobody's minion. If she does try to take over the world, she's going to be leading the mission."

"True." Eva stared dejectedly at the pitcher. Even though it wasn't the real Eva, she could still taste the stuff; the golem had very good feedback sensations.

"All I'm trying to say is that making them your 'minibosses' isn't your sole motive." Santa leaned back in his chair.

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, you certainly don't have to be here."

"You know as well as I do that this golem can't go too far from the teleporter without breaking the connection to me."

"I know that. I'm not a novice when it comes to magic, you know. It's just that you're sitting here with me, keeping an eye on their progress..." He gestured to the enormous map on the wall; small glowing arrows tracked the movement of the five sleighs as they proceeded on their delivery routes. "...when you could just cut the connection and go back and sit in your cottage, the same way you've done every Christmas for the past who-knows-how-many years."

"It's my duty as master to keep an eye on them. That's all."

"You keep telling yourself that." Santa chuckled before turning towards the large door at the end of the room. "Dear? Can you bring some more cookies and eggnog?"

"Coming!" Mrs. Claus bustled through the doorway, carrying a large pitcher in one hand and balancing a massive platter of cookies in the other. "Here you go!" She took a seat next to Santa, who smiled at the sullen vampire girl.

"I don't know why you're so adamant about this." He poured a glass of eggnog for his wife. "Even 'evil' vampire mages need some human contact once in a while."

* * *

"Why do we have to do Australia?" Anya groused as she rested her hand on her hand, which themselves rested on the front of the bright green sleigh in which she was riding. "We've been going for like 2 hours and we aren't even there yet."

"Oh, be quiet." Kotaro muttered. The dog boy was curled up on the seat, trying to pass the time by sleeping. "At least Australia will be warmer. And we don't have as many stops to make."

"At least everybody else is probably _doing_ things by now. Are we there yet?"

"We'll reach Darwin within the next twenty minutes." Kaede tapped the GPS with her finger. Kaede wasn't surprised that she had ended up watching the ten-year-olds. Compared to the Narutakis, this was positively relaxing. "Once we're there, I'll let you two do the deliveries. You'll fit down the chimneys easier than I will.

"Yeah, cause those giant boobs of yours get in the way." Anya grumbled. "What a horrible problem to have."

Kaede just chuckled and snapped the reins. "You guys holding up alright?"

"We're fine." Vixen grumbled. He had been a bit ornery since the first ten minutes of the trip, after Kotaro had repeatedly identified him as female.

"But seriously, we're good." Prancer looked over her shoulder at the sleigh. "This is a lot easier than it usually is. "You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to get all 8 of us to get the formation right. We usually waste like an hour trying to get the straps untangled. You wouldn't believe the problems you run into when you try to get everybody on the same page."

Kaede looked over at Anya and Kotaro, who were arguing heatedly over who would get to make the first drop-off.

"I know exactly what you mean."

* * *

Chisame and Akira stared at each other silently for a good thirty seconds. Roughly 20 seconds into the stare, Chisame realized that if she would have just turned around, Akira would probably not have recognized her. Of course, it was roughly 18 seconds too late for that. So she spent 10 seconds or so attempting to think of what to do. Might as well try to distract her classmate from the fact that she was wearing a Santa suit...

"Akira, what are you doing up at this hour!-?"

Chisame generally expected a reply along the lines of "I could ask you the same question!", but what she got was this:

"Shhhhh!" Akira put a finger up to her lips and tried to whisper across the room. "I- uh...it's a long story." She waved at Chisame to come closer.

Chisame dumped her sack of gifts behind a plastic snowman in the hope that Akira would ignore it, and tiptoed forward until she was standing right next to the other girl.

"Please be quiet." Akira pressed her hands together. "I'm trying to put all this stuff in these stockings before tomorrow morning."

"Why?" Chisame whispered back. There might be a way to get out of this without having to explain everything.

"Long story short, Makie still believes in Santa, and we're trying to keep the revelation from ruining Christmas."

"Ah." Chisame scratched her head. She was quite sure that explaining what was really going on would result in somebody being turned into an ermine, so she kept her mouth shut. "So you're playing Santa by filling all the stockings?"

"Right."

"Well..." Chisame scratched awkwardly at the fuzzy neck of her coat, trying to sound enthusiastic. "That's the same thing I'm here for."

"Really? You don't seem like the type..."

"A certain someone asked me to do it as a favor. I'm not at liberty to say any more."

"Oh. Negi, right?"

"Yep." Chisame clasped her hands together to keep her fingers from shaking. "Please don't tell anybody about it. It's supposed to be a surprise."

"Okay, just don't tell Makie about any of this, okay?"

"We have a deal." Chisame doubled back to retrieve her bag. "Now let's get this stuff in the stockings and get out of here before somebody catches us."

* * *

.

* * *

Okay, so this chapter could probably have used some more ironing out, but I'm kinda working under a time crunch. I think it turned out okay, although I would have liked to expand on all the individual sections; originally I had planned to have more character interaction (especially with the reindeer), but if I want this story to be done by Christmas I just don't have the time to put all that in. Maybe next year. :)

In any case, here are some notes:

Santa's list of Haruna's offenses is a Shout Out to one of my other stories, _Artifact Abuse_ (for the record, that story isn't as family friendly as this one. You have been warned).

The reason Santa has a floating La-Z-Boy instead of a regular wheelchair is because I recently moved a La-Z-Boy into my room, and it's awesome.

The song playing on Santa's radio is "Can I Play with Madness" by Iron Maiden, from the album _Seventh Son of a Seventh Son_ (which is awesome and you should listen to it). I don't know why, but the idea of Santa joyriding in his sleigh while listening to metal is hilarious to me.

If it isn't clear in the story itself, let me clarify that all the sleighs have both a temporal manipulation system and a spatial manipulation system. The temporal one is some sort of spell that slows down the flow of time in the rest of the world, relative to the sleigh, stretching the time experienced by those in the sleigh so that they have ample time to get all their deliveries done. Kinda like the magic that Eva's resort uses to cram a whole day into an hour. The spatial manipulator is basically a portal into a pocket dimension contained in the sleigh that Santa stores the presents in. Like a "bigger on the inside" kinda thing. It's organized into sections which can be accessed via codes so that Santa doesn't have to root through the entire pile of all the presents every time he makes a delivery. The famous list also includes the codes for where in the dimension the stuff is stored. I was going to have a scene where Santa explains the system to everyone, but it was mostly unnecessary exposition, so I didn't bother with it.

Eva's link with the pseudo-Eva has a limited range, and is linked through the teleporter, so the Pseudo-Eva can't go too far from the teleportation thing. I was going to explain it in an earlier chapter, but I forgot to because I'm an idiot. Fortunately, it didn't factor in until now, so I could just explain it in this chapter. I needed a reason why Eva would stay behind with Santa.

Mrs. Claus was going to have a larger role, but I skipped over it because of the time crunch.

Wow, I didn't realize there were so many issues here until I wrote this...

Oh well.

Please leave reviews, and thanks for reading.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Night Ala Alba Saved Christmas**

**Chapter 5**

"Isn't the view amazing, Setchan?" Konoka threw an arm around Setsuna and pulled her over to the edge of the sleigh. "Look at all the lights!"

"It really is quite beautiful, Ojou-sama." A mile or so below them, a massive city was spread out, streetlights glittering.

"According to my geographic sensors, we are currently located above Los Angeles." Chachamaru stated.

"Look, the Hollywood sign!" Konoka leaned over the edge and pointed. "It's like the entire city is covered with Christmas lights."

"Y..yes." Setsuna gently pulled Konoka back to her seat so she wasn't in as much danger of falling.

"I am beginning the descent. Please hold on."

Setsuna and Konoka barely had time to latch onto the railing before the sleigh took a dive towards the top of an apartment building.

"YAAHHH!" Setsuna's grip was so tight that her knuckles were white.

"WHEEEEEEE!" Konoka had one hand to the railing, the other in the air above her head, waving.

The sleigh jerked to a stop on top of a large apartment block.

"Don't do that!" Setsuna snapped at Chachamaru as she tried to pry her fingers off of her handhold.

"That was fun!" Hopped off the sled and sauntered up next to the reindeer. "Can you go faster next time?"

"Of course, they don't call me Comet for nothing."

"Oh, not this again." Cupid groaned. "Every year she tries stunt-flying..."

"Here, have a carrot." Konoka stuck the vegetable and Cupid began munching happily, his previous complaints forgotten. The girl turned back to the sleigh, where Setsuna was still berating Chachamaru for her reckless piloting. "I don't know what you're so afraid of, Setchan. You can fly, after all."

Setsuna opened her mouth as if to respond, but failed to respond. She closed her mouth sheepishly.

"We'll, I'll get the gifts out. Which one of you is going to take them down?"

"I'll do it!" Konoka waved her hand enthusiastically.

Setsuna sighed. Konoka was really getting into this.

Ku Fei's head emerged from the chimney in a coughing fit.

"It's really dirty in there-aru!" She began shaking soot out of her hair. There was a click and a flash of light. "Don't take pictures!" She shouted at Asakura, who was leaning back in the sleigh with her camera, Sayo's voodoo doll body resting on her shoulder. Ku finished wiping the ash from her face and began to climb back into the sleigh.

"Maybe I could try the next one." Sayo raised a tiny hand. "If I stop possessing the body I might be able to float the bag down the chimney."

"Interesting idea..." Asakura set the camera on the seat and began scribbling in her second notebook, the first one having been already filled with notes on the inner workings of Santa's workshop. "Anyway-" She turned back to the reindeer who were pulling the sleigh. "So, Phil...You just joined Santa's team recently?"

"Yep, a few years back. Santa wanted another reindeer to spread all the work out a little. So I transferred in from Norway. I wasn't going to pass up this kind of opportunity."

"So why did you get chosen for this assignment?"

"Rudolph here was kind enough to give a me a recommendation."

The other reindeer bobbed his head.

"Yeah, I was happy to put in a good word for my buddy here. After none of the teams in the Reindeer Games would let me join, Phil and I started our own team. Football champions six years running." He stamped his hoof.

"Okay good." Asakura finished scribbling her notes. "So these reindeer games...what do they entail exactly?"

"That can wait, aru." Ku shoved Asakura over. "We have stuff to do. You can finish your interview during our next stop." She took the reigns and gave them a shake. "Let's go, aru!" The sleigh shot into the air as Rudolph and Phil leapt off the edge of the building into the night.

Asakura sighed. The wind was far too noisy for her to question the reindeer. Oh well.

"So, let's work out the logistics of our next stop." She turned to Sayo. "Can you stop possessing that doll when you aren't on Mahora's campus? I thought you were bound to it?"

"I can leave the doll, but I'm just bound to the doll instead. I should be able to go down the chimney that way."

"Why would you go down the chimney when you can just pass through solid objects?"

"I have to bring the gift bag down with me, obviously. Although maybe we should tie a rope onto it; I would hate to drop it, and you know how much of a klutz I can be. Maybe we should just leave the deliveries to Ku."

"Don't do that, aru!" Ku wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. "I need a break."

Chisame shoved the last gift into the stocking with Zazie's name scribbled across it. What the heck that girl needed a set of gold-plated juggling clubs for was beyond all human comprehension. The fact that the clubs somehow fit into the stocking was also somewhat puzzling, but after sailing through the stratosphere in a magic sleigh pulled by flying animals Chisame didn't feel like thinking too hard about it. Some sort of Santa-magic.

"Okay, done!" She stole a glance at her watch. "I really need to get going. Other stops to make."

"Alright, I'll see you at the Christmas party tomorrow." Akira balled up the now-empty plastic bag that had been full of cheap presents. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Chisame disappeared into the stairwell, dragging her sack behind her, hoping that Akira wouldn't notice that she was headed up to the roof. Fortunately, Akira was far too tired to be paying attention.

She tossed the bag into the nearby trash can and dropped into a sitting position against the wall. Finally, she had the chance to relax. Nothing else stood between her and her bed. There was half a minute of silence as Akira tried to drum up the willpower to force herself onto her feet. She had just dragged herself upright when she was knocked to the floor by Makie's excited emergence into the hallway.

The first thought that came to Akira's mind was the fact that her cover was blown; Makie would notice the stockings and come to the logical conclusion that Akira had done the filling. Of course, this fear was unfounded, as even in normal circumstances Makie was not the brightest bulb. As for the current circumstance, the girl seemed to be in a state of pure ecstasy, and an explanation for why Akira was in the hallway was the furthest thing from her mind.

"I just saw Santa's sleigh!"

"What?"

"Come on!" Once again, Akira found herself being dragged along. Within seconds, she was in Makie and Yuuna's room. Yuuna was staring wide-eyed out the window, pointing with a shaking finger.

Akira put her face near the glass and inhaled sharply. Silhouetted against the moon was the outline of two reindeer towing behind them an old-fashioned sleigh. Akira watched, slack-jawed, as the image shimmered briefly in the sky before fading into the clouds.

"Did you see it!-?" Makie was bouncing excitedly around the room, her gymnast's intuition guiding her around the piles of decorations that littered the room.

"Yeah." Akira wanted to think that her eyes were playing tricks on her, but it had been so clear... "I definitely saw it."

"We saw Santa! This is so amazing!" Makie froze for a second before her grin stretched even wider. "I have to go check the stockings!" She rushed into the hallway, leaving Yuuna and Akira sitting in the room.

"She's not going to sleep any time soon." Akira sighed.

"Why?" Yuuna cocked her head.

"Because...someone else helped fill the stockings."

There was a loud gasp from the hallway as Makie discovered Akira and Chisame's work. Yuuna twisted her neck to stare at Akira.

"You mean...Santa...actually..."

"Kinda." She picked up one of the remaining cookies from the table. "I can't tell you any more."

"Looks everybody's on their way back." Eva stared at the tracking system as all the blinking dots approached the home base.

"Yep." Santa shifted himself in his chair. "The Library girls should be coming in for a landing any minute now. Negi's group and Asakura's groups will be here in about fifteen minutes. Chachamaru will be here shortly after that, and Kaede's group should arrive about half an hour for now." He stroked his beard. "It seems that everything went off without a hitch." He extended a hand to the vampire girl. "Allow me to thank you for your help."

She reluctantly allowed him a handshake.

"You realize that I didn't actually do anything except blow up part of your workshop, break your leg, and eat a bunch of your food..."

"Oh, don't worry about all that stuff. We'll have the workshop fixed before New Years, and my leg will be good as new in a month or so. And the food is just my courtesy to you."

"Even so, it was the kids who did all the heavy lifting." She grumbled into her half-empty cup.

"Well, you're the one who made them into a team. Even if you are trying to make them into your evil minions, you've done those kids a lot of good." She looked up sullenly.

"You're giving me too much credit."

Santa just chuckled. He did that a lot.

"If you feel left out, I do have one last favor to ask of you."

"Shoot. I guess I owe you."

"I want you to attend the 3-A Christmas party this year."

"Seriously?" Eva leaned back in her chair, slinging her feet onto the table. "I owe you a favor, and you tell me to go to a party? Oh, whatever. Saves me from having to do actually work."

"Good." Santa turned to the map, which was now flashing brightly. "Looks like the first group is back in. Come on. Let's go down to the garage and greet them." His chair began to float down the hallway, the Pseudo-Eva floating slowly along behind him.

"Wow that was amazing!" Haruna bounced out of the garage, Nodoka and Yue following behind.

"Did everything go well?" Santa held out his hand, which Haruna enthusiastically high-fived.

"No major incidents." Yue reported.

"Well, there was that one guy..." Nodoka adjusted her hat. "...In New Jersey..."

"Oh right." Yue cleared her throat. "Well, Haruna wanted to do at least one delivery, so me and Nodoka decided to go with her. We kinda knocked over an end table and woke him up."

"Did he see you?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Yue muttered. "When we tried to put it back up, we just made a bigger mess."

"He was a nice guy, though." Nodoka interjected. "He agreed not to tell anybody if we took a picture with him."

"That's...odd." Santa scratched his mustache.

"I threw in a sketch of the four of us as a bonus." Haruna gave Santa a thumbs up.

"I suppose that's alright as long as the secret doesn't get out." He rubbed his forehead. "Why don't you girls go wait in the dining room for all of your friends to get back. Or maybe back to the workshop. The elves will let you know when everyone else gets back, okay?"

"Sounds good." Haruna vanished down the hallway.

"We'll see you later, won't we?" Nodoka asked.

"Of course."

"Okay." Yue and Nodoka made a beeline for the library.

"Good luck ever getting them away from your books." Eva said with a laugh. "Even I have trouble with that."

"Oh, I have my ways of getting them out." Another light began to flash. "Oh, looks like we have another group coming in!"

_This is ridiculous. Of all the insane things I've had to do, this is the worst. _

"Eva-chan, you aren't wearing your hat!"

Konoka pressed the Santa cap onto Evangeline's head. Asakura had somehow gotten the idea into her head that what this occasion really really needed was a group picture of everyone wearing the red coats and hats that Santa had handed out, with the man himself in the center. They had already wasted a good twenty minutes trying to get everybody in the proper positions, facing the right direction, and finding something for the head elf to stand on when he took the picture.

Eva stood off on the end, trying to occupy her mind with anything other than thoughts of what was going on around her. It wasn't working.

"Come on, Eva, smile! We need everybody to be smiling!"

"This is so inane..." She muttered.

"Don't be such a downer, Eva-chan!" Konoka patted her on the back. "The sooner you smile for the picture, the quicker you can get out of here, okay? At least try to look happy."

Evangeline let out a long sigh, but she forced her face into a smile.

"Okay, everybody, on three!" The elf stood on top of a stack of crates, fiddling with the camera. "Smile! One, Two, Three!"

There was a click, and Asakura scurried forward to examine the screen on the back of the camera.

"Okay everybody, we're good."

The neatly organized group dissolved into a rabble. One step closer to going home.

"Come on people, it's time to leave! This is your Master speaking!" Eva herded her students towards the workshop's exit. She could grudgingly understand their reluctance to leave the workshop, but it was starting to get ridiculous. Saying goodbyes was one thing, but they had gone through the whole process at least twice already. Konoka had probably backtracked at least half a dozen times to give Santa a "final" hug.

"Really, everyone, you should get going. It's almost light out. You need to get back before your friends realize that you went missing." He waved at the group as they slogged through the snow towards the teleporter. "Once again, thank you all for your help. I will be sure to keep in touch, and I hope to see you all next year." He pressed his palms together and bowed.

"Thank you, sir." Negi returned the bow, and the rest of the group followed suit.

"You're very welcome." He grinned. "All of you had better be on my nice list next time we meet. Goodbye everyone, and Merry Christmas!"

With that, Santa vanished into the workshop as everyone waved and shouted their final goodbyes. Eva stood next to the teleporter, monitoring it, as it sent her pupils back to Mahora. As the last of them disappeared into the rune, Santa emerged once again.

"Don't forget our agreement, Evangeline."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll go to the party." She exhaled deeply. "Thanks for the food. Tell Mrs. Claus that the cookies were delicious."

"I'll be sure to pass it on. Merry Christmas, Eva."

She stepped up to the magic circle, glowing in the snow.

"You too." She vanished into the teleporter.

Santa watched the snow blowing through the night.

"Reginald." An elf popped out of the snow next to Santa's floating chair.

"Yes, sir?"

"Prepare the high-velocity racing sleigh. I have one more delivery to make."

For what seemed like the millionth time that day, Eva groaned. This time it wasn't from frustration, but due to the fact that she had imbibed far more eggnog than her ten-year-old body could handle. She had knocked back so many of them in Santa's workshop with the Pseudo-Eva that she had forgotten her limits.

The last time she had attended one of these parties had been eight years earlier. That particular iteration of class 3-A had been lousy enough to convince her that class gatherings weren't worth the trouble. It was just a bunch of cliques, each with its own agenda, and Eva hadn't fit into any of them. If she was going to be sitting alone in a corner, she might as well do it in the comfort of her own home. But this 3-A was different.

They were certainly a hodgepodge of seemingly all the most abnormal students that Mahora could find, but at least it wasn't an exclusive group. Even die-hard introverts like Chisame got dragged into the madness. By the end of it, the hacker girl was ranting and raving about how her gingerbread house was clearly superior to shack that the cheerleaders had put together, and the judges clearly had no sense of taste.

So of course it was inevitable that Eva was forced to take part in the "Human Christmas Tree Decorating Contest". As one of the trees, of course. Getting tied up with half a dozen rolls of tinsel was hardly comfortable, and the glitter was probably never going to come out of her hair. But even so, she was forced to admit that seeing Kotaro get coated in fake snow and strings of lights by his supposed sister was actually quite funny.

As darkness encroached over the campus, the games eventually gave way to mere talking. Namely, Makie and Yuuna trying their hardest to convince their classmates that they had in fact seen Santa's sleigh. Even Akira seemed to be in on it this year.

Eva groaned, and this time it was in frustration. Somebody had slipped up and blown their cover. Oh well, nobody actually knew what had happened. She would let this one go.

She surveyed the room again. Over the years, Eva had been to enough parties to recognize the atmosphere of a party that was about to end. This particular one had only about ten minutes left before her classmates would begin to file out, back to the dorm.

"Hey, Chachamaru." She tapped the robot on the shoulder, pulling her out of her conversation with Narutakis. "We should head back to the cottage soon. Takahata is going to shanghai us into helping with clean up."

"Alright, Mistress." She got up, picking Eva's coat off of her chair as they walked to the door.

"Leaving already, Eva-chan?" Konoka looked up from her hot chocolate.

"It's getting dark, and it's a long walk back to the cottage." Eva shrugged.

"Okay." Konoka smiled broadly. "Oh, I have a favor to ask."

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind if we visit your resort tomorrow. It's been a long day. You know..."

"That's fine. I need a break too, and I didn't even do anything. I'll see you all tomorrow." Evangeline and Chachamaru waved at the class as they walked out the door.

"Did you enjoy the party, Mistress?"

"It was better than I expected." Eva muttered curtly as she shook bits of tinsel out of her hair. "Although I wish they would have decided to wrap somebody else in all this glittery crap."

"I'm glad to hear you had a good time."

"I never said..." Eva stopped. "You know what? It really wasn't that bad."

"Does this mean that you'll go to the New Year's party as well?"

"I suppose I might as well."

The vampire girl tossed her coat over her couch and parked herself in her softest chair. What a hassle. Two solid days of chaos. She was just about to nod off when her heard a grumbling from behind her. She looked to see Chamo and Chachazero sitting on the kitchen table.

Sitting in front of the ermine was a black lump.

"Man, I thought for sure that helping Aniki find a partner would get me onto the nice list this year!"

Chachazero giggled.

"I told you that all of your underwear theft would cancel that out."

"Well, it's just not fair. I'm going to march myself right up to the North Pole and give Santa a piece of my mind!"

He strode resolutely to the end of the table, and then right off the end of the table. There was plop as he landed on the floor.

"What the heck is wrong with him?" Eva called over her shoulder.

"Too much eggnog. The strong stuff."

Chachamaru emerged from the basement, where she had been cleaning up from the night before.

"Would you like me to return him to Negi's room?"

"That would be great."

Chachamaru scooped up the prone ermine and carried him out the door.

"Well, that was fun." Chachazero cackled.

"I'm assuming that you got put on the naughty list again?"

"Actually, no." The doll laboriously pointed at an intricately engraved dagger that was embedded in the table. "Must be because I haven't killed anything for a decade or so. Either that or Santa's just taunting me because he knows I can't actually move."

"Good for you."

"I know, right. Well, it's been a long day, so I'm going into stasis now. See you tomorrow. Goodnight." The doll flopped back on the table, and the room was silent.

Eva was about to drift off to sleep herself when she noticed something off. Her stocking was hanging from the center of the mantlepiece, and there was something inside it. She shoved herself out of the chair and snatched the sock off of it's hook.

Inside it was a flat, rectangular box, wrapped beautifully in overly colorful paper.

"Might as well see what this is."

Her fingernails sliced through the paper and ribbon, and she found herself holding an elaborately hand-carved picture frame. Inside the frame was the group picture from Santa's workshop. Jammed in the corner of the frame was a small handwritten note.

_Evangeline,_

_I'm glad to see that you finally found some friends to celebrate this Christmas with._

_Don't be afraid to enjoy it. ;)_

_Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!_

_Santa._

_P.S. Congratulations on finally achieving the "nice" list!_

_Tell Chamo that if he knocks off the panty thievery,_

_he'll get on the "nice" list and I'll bring him a nice hat next year._

Eva chuckled to herself as she set the picture on the center of the mantlepiece. As she looked at Santa's face, she could have sworn it winked at her. She sat back in her chair. She just needed some sleep. Tomorrow she could go to the resort, and she would _really_ relax. For the first time she could remember, she was almost looking forward to having that rabble of students show up at her door.

* * *

.

* * *

Yup, so the Christmas story is finally complete. There's a _ton_ of stuff I wanted to put into this story, but never got the chance to. Maybe next year I'll revamp the story and post it the way I intended it to be from the start. Although, I'm content with how it turned out, given how rushed it is. Hopefully it's still an enjoyable read.

I _may_ tack a chapter of bonus extra stuff on here, but if I do, it won't be for a few more days.

Merry Christmas, everybody!


End file.
